AdventureQuest Worlds

AdventureQuest Worlds
Developer(s)	Artix Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Artix Entertainment
Engine	Adobe Flash
Release date(s)	June 2, 2008 (Alpha) August 18, 2008 (Beta) October 10, 2008 (Live)
Genre(s)	Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

AdventureQuest Worlds (often shortened to AQ Worlds or simply AQW) is a browser-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released by Artix Entertainment in October 2008. Unlike most MMORPGs, AdventureQuest Worlds is developed entirely in Adobe Flash. It currently has over 30 million registered accounts, reaching six million in May 2009 and nine million two months later.

Gameplay

Upon account creation, players are asked to choose from one of four "starting classes"—Warrior, Rogue, Mage, or Healer—and are given a default weapon corresponding to the selected class. Each starting class has different strengths and weaknesses. Leveling up lets characters learn new abilities and increase their attack power. Players have five different skills, depending on their character's class; the ability that is common to all classes is the "auto-attack" ability. Individual abilities, deemed "passive" abilities, may be unlocked after the character reaches a certain Rank. Players begin at Rank 1 and progress as they receive class points from defeating enemies; this may depend on the enemy's level and difficulty stars (1-5). Players gain experience and gold when enemies have been defeated. Players can also acquire other classes by gaining Reputation, or REP for short. This REP (which begins at 1 and can increase to 10) is acquired by completing quests in a certain location. Examples of Reputation Classes include "Troll Spellsmith", "Darkblood Stormking", and "Chaos Slayer Berserker".

AdventureQuest Worlds has events on special occasions. A new event is added to the game every other Friday. Some events are one time only while others are "seasonal events" that appear once every year. Often, users that participate in these events can procure event-specific items not available at any other time in the game. Some events feature live events with guest stars like Voltaire, One-Eyed Doll, George Lowe, Paul and Storm, Jonathan Coulton, the cast of Ctrl+Alt+Del, Ayi Jihu, ArcAttack, They Might Be Giants, Andrew Huang, Mia J. Park, The Crüxshadows, and Michael Sinterniklaas as the voice of Deady.

The game is set in a universe similar to those in AdventureQuest, DragonFable, and MechQuest. The goal of the game is to adventure through Lore, move on to higher levels, face the 13 Lords of Chaos, and fight Drakath, the Champion of Chaos. As the story progresses, the player meets the Queen of Monsters, who chose Drakath to be her Champion.

Plot

Prologue

The game first begins when the player is on a mountain. The player is struck by lightning causing the player to fall down the mountain. Then, the player slays many undead forces of Sepulchure and kills a dragon named the Dread Dragon.

After she/he saves Oaklore from a dragon that is being controlled by Princess Tara (who is possessed by the power of the Ring of Dragon Control), they have to go to Swordhaven where the Doom Knight Overlord Sepulchure and his undead army from Shadowfall invades Swordhaven. King Alteon faces Sepulchure in a one-on-one duel to stop him. Unfortunately, Drakath interrupts the fight by killing Sepulchure, crushing his Undead Soul, and also caused King Alteon to go through his Chaorruption (short for Chaos Corruption) slowly.Planning to unleash his 13 Lords of Chaos upon Lore, Drakath uses one of his 'Chaos Balls' to send the undead dragon where DoomKnight Sepulchure's daughter Gravelyn was on flying and crashes into the nearby mountain range. After the attack, the forces of good (led by King Alteon) and the forces of evil (directed by Sepulchure's daughter Gravelyn) form a truce to fight Drakath and the Lords of Chaos.

13 Lords of Chaos saga

There are already signs of Chaorruption in the nearby forest and marsh causing the player to capture the Chaorrupted Wolves, Chaorrupted Bear, and Chaos Spiders alongside some antidote-based plants to be studied. At this point, the Chaos Lord Saga begins. Drakath unleashes his 13 Lords of Chaos (Chaos Lords are like bosses) upon Lore, which the player has to defeat one by one. They soon discover that Drakath plans to activate each rune in order to free his master the Queen of Monsters.

Queen of Monsters: Ancient Evils saga

Now that the Queen of Monsters has been freed, she plans to raise each of the Ancient Elemental Titans that are scattered across the shattered continent of Drakonus.

Reception

Kotaku's Mike Fahey praised the idea of using advertisements when the player died. Pete Davison, from GamePro, also noted the advertisements at death, calling it an "interesting" idea.

External links

• AdventureQuest Worlds
• AdventureQuest Worlds design notes